Stylist for the dead and hopefully alive
by Kayla2175
Summary: I'm a stylist for the Hunger Games and it's my first year. Will the Capitol remember me? Will Marena make it out alive? She told me she had never felt more beautiful in her life after the parade and I want to make sure that she always is. I hope that she makes it out, unscarred by these games. Rated T for Hunger Games


I wrote this for a hunger games forum contest. The forum is called Starvation and they have monthly contests. The prompt for July was, Beginnings and Endings. Quick note: sorry there's no formatting in the authors notes, whenever I do it a bunch of html coding shows up.

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I was sitting in my apartment, well, they call it an apartment. It's actually the size of a large house. Today was Reaping Day and I was re-watching the District 4 Reapings. I would be working with their female tribute. Her name was Marena and she was flat-out beautiful. She was tall, with long brown hair, and piercing blue eyes. She was seventeen and she looked determined, not afraid like her district partner, a fourteen year old boy named Dylan. They would be arriving in the Capitol soon and I was almost finished with her costume design for the tribute parade. It being my first Hunger Games as a stylist, I had to make my mark on the Capitol. I truly hoped what I did was enough to make them remember.

From my room in the tribute building, I could see the packed train station. Hundreds of Capitol residents were there, all waiting to catch their first, in person glimpse, of this years tributes. None of them seemed to realize that they could most likely see from their windows but, why stay inside when you could actually be there? A huge cheer arose from the crowd when the fourth train arrived. District 4. Not long from now, Marena would come to see me for the tribute parade. Both her, Dylan, and their escort stepped off of the train. Their escort, Michael, began to wave at the crowd, as if it would make them part for him. A few people moved out of the way, but most were so enthralled with the tributes that they just stood and cheered. Marena didn't seem to care. She was smiling and shaking hands and greeting the Capitol in a way that made the people love her. Dylan on the other hand, stood right by Michael and was trying to make his way through the crowd as quick as possible. He was going to be a handful for his team. As they neared the end of the crowd, the District 5 train appeared and the crowd turned away from the threesome as their attention shifted elsewhere.

Not two hours later, Marena's prep team came into my room to tell me that she was ready. I walked down the hall, excited that I got a cooperative tribute for my first year. As I entered the room, Marena stood up, a smile on her face. "Hello!" she greeted. " You must be my stylist." I nodded and observed," You have a surprisingly good attitude about this." She gave me a sad smile and told me, "I come from a poor family and if I win these games I can help them. They need the money so I'm trying as hard as I can to come out victorious." I nodded, understanding what was going on with her. I gave her a smile, and told her that lunch was waiting for us and we walked over to a table that contained sandwiches and drinks for both of us.

After lunch, when the tribute parade was just hours away, I decided that I should show her the costume. I called her over to the opaque garment bag and slowly unzipped it. When I pulled out the costume, Marena gasped.

"It's... beautiful. I absolutely love it."

"Good. Because I do too." The costume was, of course, blue to represent District 4. But rather than a perfect crystal blue it had streaks of brown running through it as if to symbolize dirty water. Marena looked at me oddly as she fingered the brown strips. I found myself getting nervous. If someone from one of the Districts didn't like it, what would the Capitol citizens think? Would they love it or would they hate it?

"Why did you put brown it?"

"It symbolizes impurites," I started off more confident than I felt. Doing something like I did could have been dangerous. "It represents something as simple as dirty water to something more huge." I dropped my voice to a whisper as I said, "Something like these Games." I wasn't a fool. The Capitol likely had cameras and audio systems rigged all through out the building. I wasn't going to risk my life by saying exactly how I felt loudly.

After gaping at my words for a considerable amount of time, Marena responded. "That's amazing. All of it. The costume itself and what it symbolizes. You're not what I expected you to be."

I think I understood what she meant. I wasn't the typical heartless, prattling citizen who cared about nothing more than the latest trend. Did I sometimes fall into the trap of the capitol? Yes, I did. But it wasn't often.

"Can I try it on?"

"Yes, of course." The costume was two pieces. The shirt was long sleeved and cut off just a few inches above her tanned waist. It had a low cut neckline that dropped off at the shoulders. The skirt was long and it billowed out in different shades of blues and browns. It was a perfect fit and it showed off her every curve. She looked amazing in it.

I called her prep team to do the final touches. Her makeup was bright blue lipstick and eyeshadow that made her blue eyes stand out even more. The team curled her long brown hair and dyed the tips a very bright blue that resembled the color of sunlit water. She looked like she belonged out on the ocean. Between her costume, her makeup, and her beauty, I had a feeling that sponsors would be lining up to help her. Once the team left, she stood and stared in the mirror.

"Wow. I-I can't believe that I can look like this good." She laughed and her eyes lit up. I watched as she twirled around before the mirror, looking beautiful in her costume. My feet carried me to her with a box in hand. I opened to reveal a set of jewelry. There was a ring that was made of sapphire to look like waves, a pair of plain blue hoop earrings, a dark blue chain necklace with brown links scattered throughout, two blue cuff bracelets with brown bands at the top, and lastly, a crown that looked to be woven of waves themselves. She put the jewelry on, admiring the necklace, it seemed to be her favorite piece. I placed the tiara on her head and it sat perfectly.

A voice called out over the loud speaker," Ten minutes until the parade starts."

I looked over at Marena and told her, "Let's get going to the ceremony so everyone else can see how beautiful you are." Together we walked out of the room to meet up with Dylan and his stylist. As I held the door for her, I watched as her skirt opened on the edges to reveal an assortment of ribbons that made it look as if water was falling off of her. I smiled. The Capitol would love it when the wind picked up and "water" blew off of her.

I saw Dylan fidgeting in the carriage, stealing nervous glances at the other tributes. His costume, blue of course, was much simpler that Marena's and it lacked the brown colors. I had talked to his stylist about incorporating the brown, but she refused to acknowledge the idea. She claimed she was afraid of what it meant.

As we walked to the carriage and past the other tributes, Marena also snuck glances at them, but not in the same nervous way that Dylan did. She gave friendly smiles to the other girls, which some returned, and flirtatious smiles to the guys, which ,of course, they loved. I saw the male tribute from District 2 looking at her and she noticed it too and blew him a kiss. Allies would not be hard to find for her. When we got to the carriage I told her exactly what she needed to do to get the Capitol's attention. " You need to make them happy. Wave, smile, blow kisses, what ever. Just entertain them."

Marena nodded. " I'm going to do whatever it takes to get out of these games," she promised. And I believed with not even a hint of doubt.

"One minute until the parade starts. Please enter your carriages," the voice echoed through the loud speaker. Marena gave me one of her ever pleasant smiles, and placed a foot in the carriage. Her shoes were two inch heels, plain and brown, all the way through. Dylan offered her a hand, which she took, and pulled herself into the carriage. I could hear her talking in a soothing voice to Dylan. "Don't be afraid," she soothed. "Pretend it's just a regular parade." Dylan looked back one last time before the carriage jolted forward and out into the bright lights of the arena. I watched on a screen as Dylan and Marena flew across the ground. The dress experiment had worked. The ribbons looked just like water as the skirt billowed behind her. She was waving to the crowd, smiling and she had convinced Dylan to do the same. They both looked extremely happy and that made the Capitol love them.

When the parade ended and Marena stepped out of the carriage, she gave me a hug and said, "I could be dead in the next week because of these games, but I've never felt more beautiful in my life." She walked over towards Dylan and started to speak with him. I called out as she started to walk away, " Stay alive and you will always be beautiful."

I had ended my first parade and it had gone surprisingly well. But I knew that this was just one ending in the sea of endings the Hunger Games brought on to this world. Not just parade endings, but the endings of lives as well.

...

So, what did you guys think? Also, I was wondering if anyone thought I should write a story from Marena's point of view about her games? Thanks for reading! Also a huge thank you to both of the people who betaed this story, BlackTiger6 and Miss Ninja Gal!


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